How to Sew Baby Booties & Free Pattern

How to Sew Baby Booties & Free Pattern

Have you ever found a baby product that you just love? These baby booties are a copy of the Zutano baby booties, the best baby shoes/socks that I have ever put on my 3 kids’ infant feet. They don’t fall off! They are made out of soft knit fabric so in between a sock and shoe and the elastic around the ankle makes it so they don’t fall off little feet. I loved them so much I decided to make my own version and share the pattern and tutorial with you! So keep reading for the full tutorial on how to sew baby booties with a free downloadable pattern.

I am a Fairfield World master maker, this post is in partnership with them and features their awesome interfacing. This post also contains affiliate links, which means I make a commission if you click over and purchase something I recommend. This helps keep patterns and content on this blog free to you! Thanks for supporting Handmade in the Heartland!

For this sewing project I used some special tools that are really fun to have on hand if you do a lot of sewing for little ones. The Babyville line of products by Dritz has an awesome snap set with pliers and lots of fun colors of snaps for whatever projects you’ll be making. This project is pretty simple and takes an hour or two depending on how fast you are.

*Choosing Fabric- I chose to do the outside of the shoe in a print and the inside in a solid, you could easily do 2 solid colors, or all of it the same color to make it even more simplified.

I’ve also made a FULL VIDEO TUTORIAL. So if you like video more than photos watch it while you sew!

Step 1: Print & cut out the pattern, I like to print the pattern pieces on card stock if I am going to use it more than once. Cut your fabric. Each pattern piece you will cut 2 lining fabric and 2 self fabric. You will also cut 2 pieces of interfacing with the shoe bottom (oval) pattern piece.

For the following instructions you will be doing every step twice because you are making 2 booties.

Step 2: Fuse the interfacing to the backside of the lining fabric for the bottom of the shoe (Oval pattern).

Step 3: Pin the right sides together of the front of the shoe “tongue” pieces- right side of self to right side of lining, as seen below. Sew around the top edge using 1/2″ seam allowance.

Step 4: After you sew the self and lining together (shown below) then flip it right side out and iron.

Make sure you iron it so that the seam has a crisp edge.

Step 5: Sew the sole of the shoes together with the wrong sides together, the interfacing should be sandwiched in between. Use 1/8″ seam allowance. see photo below

Step 6: To sew the elastic onto the back of the shoe you’ll want to mark on the fabric where the elastic needs to go. On your pattern piece it shows a line of where the elastic should be sewn onto, using a ruler and pencil measure on your pattern and then measure on your fabric and draw a line onto the fabric for your guide, draw on the backside of the fabric. See photo below.

Step 7: Next find the center of the pattern and pin the center of the elastic to the center of your line. see photo below.

Step 8: Stretch the elastic to the end points of your line on either side. Leave the center pinned so that you will evenly distribute the stretch of the elastic when sewing.

Step 9: Sew the elastic down to the fabric. When you begin sewing at one end of the elastic backstitch so it is sewn down well. Then pull the elastic so that it lays flat with the fabric as you are sewing. It will create gathers as you sew it down stretched out. Back tack at the other end as well. I just did one strait line of stitching through the center of the elastic.

Step 10: Sew the right sides of the lining and self fabric together for the back of the shoe pattern. You will need to pin a lot and make sure as you sew you press the top flat as to not sew in any gathers from the elastic. Sew at 1/2″.

Step 11: Flip the pattern piece right side out and iron flat. Now attach your snaps! Use the instructions on the Babyville pliers packaging to show you how to put them on. You can see the photo below for where I attached them. I put an option for 2 of the bottom snap end so that the shoe could be tighter or looser depending on how big the baby is.

For the second shoe put the snaps on the opposite sides of the back- so if you put the inside snaps on the right side, put them on the left side on the second shoe. See the photo below.

Here are some photos of using the Babyville pliers.

Step 12: Assemble the shoes. To sew the pieces together find the center of the bottom sole of the show (there should have been a notch on the pattern), center of the open part of the tongue pattern, and center of the open part of the back piece. You will pin the back piece to the bottom piece first, right sides together.

Start pinning at the center and the pin out from there. It should look like the photo below when you are done pinning the back piece to the bottom.

Step 13: Next pin the tongue or top of the shoe to the bottom. Start at the center and then pin out from there. The edges will overlap with the back piece a half an inch or so. See photo below.

Step 14: Sew all 3 pieces together using 1/2″ seam allowance. I have a serger so I used that but you can easily just use a regular stitch and then zig zag the edge or use pinking scissors to trim the edges. Turn it right side out and you are finished!!

When I make projects like this I like to cut 3 or 4 out and sew them all at once. It takes a little bit longer but I love having more colors for my baby or making more for gifts. Since I’m already doing it I might as well make a few!

If you make these please share it with me! I’d love to hear in the comments or tag me on Instagram (@handmadeintheheartland) or Facebook! It makes me so happy to see your creations!!

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